With the newly launched M4 MacBook Pro lineup, you might be wondering – Whether to give the MacBook Pro M4 a shot or stick with the M3 MacBook Pro?
At the outset and based on our findings, we can say that the M4 chip is better than the M3 chip. But considering that you are going to spend your hard earned money, you may want to dive into the specifics. We are also going to factor in the “Artificial Intelligence” component to find out if the upgrade to Apple M4 chip is worth it.
| Device Name | Apple M4 chip | Apple M3 chip |
| iPad Pro 11” and 13” | M4 | NA |
| Mac Mini | M4, M4 Pro | NA |
| MacBook Pro 14” | M4, M4 Pro, M4 Max | M3, M3 Pro, M3 Max |
| MacBook Pro 16” | M4 Pro, M4 Max | M3 Pro, M3 Max |
| iMac 24” | M4 | M3 |
| MacBook Air 13” and 15” | TBA – M4 | M3 |
Apple M3 Vs Apple M4 – An Overview
| Apple M3 chip | Apple M4 | |
| Total Cores | 8 | 8-10 |
| Performance Cores | 4 | 3-4 |
| Efficiency Cores | 4 | 4-6 |
| GPU Cores | 8-10 | 8-10 |
| Neural Engine Cores | 16 | 16 |
| Transistors | 25 billion | 28 billion |
| Memory Capacity | 8GB+ | 16GB+ |
| Memory Bandwidth | 100 GBPS | 120 GBPS |
| Lithography | 3nm (1st Gen) | 3nm (2nd Gen) |
Processing Cores – Apple M3 Chip Vs Apple M4 Chip
The Apple M3 chip was issued with 4 processing cores whereas the Apple M4 comes in 3 and 4 core variants in iPad Pro.
In the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, the Apple M3 pairs 4 performance cores with 4 efficiency cores. The total CPU core count becomes eight. The M4 chip, however, increases the efficiency cores to 6, making the total CPU core count 9 or 10 depending on what the configuration is.
But, the core count of M4 falls slightly shorter to M3 Pro used MacBook Pro laptops. It comes with 12 CPU cores (6 efficiency cores, and 6 performance cores).
The M4 is built on a 3 nm architecture just like M3. The difference lies in the number of transistors. Unlike M3, M4 comes with 28 billion transistors. This translates to overall efficiency and a bump in benchmark scores.
On benchmarking platforms like geekbench 6, M4 delivered 23% better performance in single-core performance. On the multi-core front, when we compare M3 8-core and M4 9-core, there’s a 23% increase.
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Graphics Core – Apple M3 Chip Vs Apple M4 Chip
The M4 graphics hardware comes with the same 10 GPU cores as the Apple M3 and M2 chip.The new 10-core GPU of M4 features dynamic caching. It allocates local memory dynamically in hardware. What this does is that the average utilization of GPUs is increased. This aspect can significantly benefit users who play graphic intensive games or who use apps that bank more on graphics. It also comes with ray tracing and mesh shading.
The predecessor M3 Apple chip came with an 8-core GPU and 10-Core GPU in an upgrade variant. Even with the latter the Apple M4 chip fared up slightly well showing a 13% improvement in performance.
Neural Processing Unit – Apple M3 Chip Vs Apple M4 Chip
The Neural Engine in both Apple M3 as well Apple M4 are dedicated for Artificial Intelligence, and machine learning. Numerically speaking, the core counts haven’t changed but the capabilities have.
The Apple M4’s 16-core neural engine can go up to 38 TOPS (Tera Operations Per second) whereas the M3 can reach 18 TOPS. Again, when benchmarked using certain platforms, M4 came up with a slight improvement of 5%. However, platforms like Geekbench came up with a difference of 14.6%.
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Other Aspects
The M4 gets a leg up in the bandwidth department. As compared to the Apple M3 chip that sports 100 Gbps, the Apple M4 chip comes with a memory bandwidth of 120 Gbps. The 20% increase allows faster data transfer especially beneficial for those applications that are data heavy.
Plus the M4 comes with a dedicated engine that was not there in the predecessors and that used to handle OLED in iPad Pro.
The M4 chip also doubles the starting memory (RAM) to 16 GB as compared to 8 GB in M3. This can be great news for those who have been wanting performance enhancements in terms of multitasking and productivity.
Our Take – To Go With Apple M4 Chip or Apple M3 Chip
We don’t deny the fact that Apple has certainly pushed the capabilities with the Apple M4. But, if you are someone who is already using the M3, you can still perform most of your resource intensive tasks.
However, if you have still been using the Apple M1 chip or older Intel systems, you can definitely consider the M4 chip. Also, if your M3 or M3 Pro arrangement seems insufficient for your workflow and you are insistent on getting better, M4 can be a great option.
What’s your take? If you found value in what you read, do share it with us in the comments section below. For more such content, keep reading Tweak Library.